Plants and shrubs cultivated for commercial sale have been grown in containers in nurseries for many years. Some of the chief benefits of the container use has been the conservation of water, efficient use of land and substantially enhanced control over the development of the plant by providing an optimal growth environment, ready access to the medial in which the plant is to grow. Moreover, these containers provide ease of transportability from a nursery to a point of sale while minimizing damage to the plant. As is well-known, the use of containers in nurseries and farms to develop plants for commercial sale has enjoyed widespread use in the nursery industry as a result of the economic cost benefit resulting from conservation of the soil and water necessary to plant development during growth from seedling to a plant ready for marketing.
One such container that has enjoyed widespread success in this industry is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,784 granted Sep. 7, 1993. In this patent, a circular container is provided with a corrugated sidewall to encourage a lateral directional root growth for the plant with roots being directed toward a plurality of apertures provided in the sidewall. Once a root reaches an aperture, it ceases to grow since it is exposed to air and prevented from growing due to the absence of soil thereby creating enhanced lateral root development. The container, however, was relatively expensive to manufacture and store due to its initial configuration.
A number of attempts have been made in the prior art, to solve the air root pruning requirement for commercial plant growing, but none to my knowledge have achieved as efficient pruning of roots, prevention of defective root development and enhancements of root form as the structure disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent.